"Danaë (Rembrandt painting) Danaë is a 1636 painting by the Dutch artist Rembrandt. Originally part of Pierre Crozat's collection, it has been located at the Hermitage Museum, in St. Petersburg, Russia since the 18th century. It is a life-sized depiction of the character Danaë from Greek mythology, the mother of Perseus. She is presumably depicted as welcoming Zeus, who impregnated her in the form of a shower of gold. Given that this is one of Rembrandt's most magnificent paintings, it is not out of the question that he cherished it, but it also may have been difficult to sell because"
"the crops and the blessing of the harvest come from below the earth. Persephone (also known as Kore) was the daughter of Demeter, the goddess of the harvest, and Zeus. Persephone was abducted by Hades, who desired a wife. When Persephone was gathering flowers, she was entranced by a narcissus flower planted by Gaia (to lure her to the underworld as a favor to Hades), and when she picked it the earth suddenly opened up. Hades, appearing in a golden chariot, seduced and carried Persephone into the underworld. When Demeter found out that Zeus had given Hades permission to abduct"
"the gods, desired her, and came to her in the form of golden rain which streamed in through the roof of the subterranean chamber and down into her womb. Soon after, their child Perseus was born. Unwilling to provoke the wrath of the gods or the Furies by killing his offspring and grandchild, King Acrisius cast Danaë and Perseus into the sea in a wooden chest. The sea was calmed by Poseidon and, at the request of Zeus, the pair survived. They were washed ashore on the island of Seriphos, where they were taken in by Dictys – the brother"
"Scholars have also compared the story of the virgin birth to the complex narratives revolving around the birth of Dionysus. In most versions of the conception of Dionysus, Zeus was said to have come to the mortal woman Semele disguised as a mortal and had sex with her. Zeus's wife Hera disguised herself as Semele's nurse and persuaded her to ask Zeus to show her his true, divine form. Zeus eventually agreed, but, upon revealing his divine form, Semele was instantly incinerated by his lightning. Zeus rescued the unborn infant Dionysus and sewed him inside his own thigh, giving birth"
"Persephone In Greek mythology, Persephone ( ; ), also called Kore ( ; ""the maiden""), is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. Homer describes her as the formidable, venerable majestic queen of the underworld, who carries into effect the curses of men upon the souls of the dead. She becomes the queen of the underworld through her abduction by and subsequent marriage to Hades, the god of the underworld. The myth of her abduction represents her function as the personification of vegetation, which shoots forth in spring and withdraws into the earth after harvest; hence, she is also associated with"
"swam in the river Asopus to cleanse herself of the blood. Flying over the scene in the guise of an eagle, Zeus fell in love with Semele and repeatedly visited her secretly. Zeus' wife, Hera, a goddess jealous of usurpers, discovered his affair with Semele when she later became pregnant. Appearing as an old crone, Hera befriended Semele, who confided in her that her lover was actually Zeus. Hera pretended not to believe her, and planted seeds of doubt in Semele's mind. Curious, Semele asked Zeus to grant her a boon. Zeus, eager to please his beloved, promised on the"
"and William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Santo portrays Persephone not as a victim but as a woman in quest of sexual depth and power, transcending the role of daughter, though ultimately returning to it as an awakened Queen. Persephone In Greek mythology, Persephone ( ; ), also called Kore ( ; ""the maiden""), is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. Homer describes her as the formidable, venerable majestic queen of the underworld, who carries into effect the curses of men upon the souls of the dead. She becomes the queen of the underworld through her abduction by and subsequent marriage to Hades, the"
"queen for her arrogance, Poseidon, brother to Zeus and god of the sea, sent a sea monster named Cetus to ravage the coast of Aethiopia including the kingdom of the vain queen. The desperate king consulted the Oracle of Apollo, who announced that no respite would be found until the king sacrificed his daughter, Andromeda, to the monster. Stripped naked, she was chained to a rock on the coast. Perseus was returning from having slain the Gorgon, Medusa. After he happened upon the chained Andromeda, he approached Cetus while invisible (for he was wearing Hades's helm), and killed the sea"
"of Zeus and Persephone; Zeus gives his inheritance of the throne to the child, as Zeus is to leave due to Hera's anger over a child being born by another mother; the Titans are enraged over the proclamation of attendance and, at Hera's instigation, decide to murder the child. Dionysus is then tricked with a mirror and children's toys by the Titans, who murder and consume him. Athena saves the heart and tells Zeus of the crime, who in turn hurls a thunderbolt on the Titans. The resulting soot, from which sinful mankind is born, contains the bodies of the"
"the same story, which Diodorus Siculus follows, Dionysus was the son of Zeus and Persephone, the queen of the Greek underworld, while another of Diodorus' sources identified the mother as Demeter. A jealous Hera again attempted to kill the child, this time by sending Titans to rip Dionysus to pieces after luring the baby with toys. It is said that he was mocked by the Titans who gave him a thyrsus (a fennel stalk) in place of his rightful sceptre. Zeus turned the Titans into dust with his thunderbolts, but only after the Titans ate everything but the heart, which"
"then, honour the mother of all [Hera], the bride of Zeus, and lend me the help of your girdle, that I may charm my runaway son furious Ares, to make heaven once more his home.’</nowiki>"" ""<nowiki>When she had finished, the goddess replied with obedient words : ‘Mother of Enyalios (i.e. Ares), bride first enthroned of Zeus! I will give my girdle and anything else you ask me; I obey, since you reign over the gods with Kronion. Receive this sash; bind it about your bosom, and you may bring back Ares to heaven. If you like, charm the mind of"
"the Rape of Persephone. It is mentioned briefly in Hesiod's Theogony, and told in considerable detail in the ""Homeric Hymn to Demeter"". Persephone used to live far away from the other gods, a goddess within Nature herself before the days of planting seeds and nurturing plants. In the Olympian telling, the gods Ares, Hermes and Apollo had wooed Persephone; but Demeter rejected all their gifts and hid her daughter away from the company of the Olympian gods. Zeus, it is said, permitted Hades, who was in love with the beautiful Persephone, to abduct her as her mother Demeter was not"
"daughter Andromeda was offered up to the monster. The king chained the princess to a rock by the shore at the insistence of his people to be devoured by Cetus. Andromeda was saved from this fate when Perseus, flying home with his trophy (i.e. head of Medusa), had passed by the kingdom of Cepheus and noticed that a girl of wonderful beauty was chained to a rock by the seashore. Perseus fell in love with her at first sight and undertook to slay the monster if she would promise to marry him; or, in a slightly different version, he approached"
"woman, Semele, the daughter of king Cadmus of Thebes, and his father was Zeus, the king of the gods. Zeus's wife, Hera, discovered the affair while Semele was pregnant. Appearing as an old crone (in other stories a nurse), Hera befriended Semele, who confided in her that Zeus was the actual father of the baby in her womb. Hera pretended not to believe her, and planted seeds of doubt in Semele's mind. Curious, Semele demanded of Zeus that he reveal himself in all his glory as proof of his godhood. Though Zeus begged her not to ask this, she persisted"
"her father Cepheus and won an equivalent promise from him. The hero then proceeded to kill the monster with his sword or sickle (or else turned it to stone by showing it the Gorgon’s head). Perseus washed off his blood in the spring near the city of Joppa which later became red water, because of his blood. Cepheus and Cassiopeia allowed Perseus to become Andromeda's husband after he used Medusa's head to turn Phineus and his men to stone for plotting against him. According to Hyginus, the betrothed of Andromeda was named Agenor. After spending a year or so at"
"The painting portrays the Greek mythological figure Danaë, the daughter of Acrisius, king of Argos. After an oracle forecast that Acrisius would be killed by her son, he had her jailed in a bronze tower. However, as told by the Roman poet Ovid in his ""Metamorphoses"", Jupiter reached her in the form of a gold rain and made her mother to Perseus. Correggio portrays Danaë lying on a bed, while a child Eros undresses her as gold rains from a cloud. At the foot of the bed, two putti are testing gold and lead arrows against a stone. Danaë (Correggio)"
"daughter to Cetus. She was chained to a rock by the sea but was saved by the hero Perseus, who in one version of the story used the head of Medusa to turn the monster into stone; in another version, by the Roman poet Ovid in his Metamorphoses, Perseus slew the monster with his diamond sword. Perseus and Andromeda then married; the myth recounts that the couple had nine children together – seven sons and two daughters – and founded Mycenae and its Persideae dynasty. After Andromeda's death Athena placed her in the sky as a constellation, to honor her."
"Keroessa In Greek mythology, Keroessa (in Greek Κερόεσσα ""the horned"") was a heroine of the foundational myth of Byzantium. She was the daughter of Io and Zeus; elder sister of Epaphus; and mother of Byzas, founder of Byzantium, with her uncle, Poseidon. According to the historian Hesychius of Miletus, as Io, changed into a heifer and being chased by a gadfly on behalf of the jealous Hera, was passing through Thrace, she gave birth to a girl, Keroessa, on the banks of the Golden Horn, by the altar of the nymph Semestra. Keroessa was reared by Semestra and grew up"
"who bore Persephone. The fifth wife of Zeus was another aunt, the Titan Mnemosyne, from whom came the nine Muses: Clio, Euterpe, Thalia, Melpomene, Terpsichore, Erato, Polymnia, Urania, and Calliope. His sixth wife was a third aunt, the Titan Leto, who gave birth to Apollo and Artemis. Zeus' seventh and final wife was his sister Hera, the mother by Zeus of Hebe, Ares, and Eileithyia. Zeus finally ""gave birth"" himself to Athena, from his head, which angered Hera so much that she produced, by herself, her own son Hephaestus, god of fire and blacksmiths. From Poseidon and the Nereid Amphitrite"
"armed and clad in armor. Hesiod also relates that the goddess Aphrodite was born from the foam of the sea after Ouranos's castrated testicles were thrown into it. Helios was a child of Zeus by Euryphaessa. He was also called ""the son of Earth and starry Heaven,"" and the son of Hyperion. Dionysus was dithyrambus, ""he who entered life by a double door."" His first birth took place prematurely. His mother, Semele, died when Zeus appeared to her in a flash of lightning, and so Zeus opened his own flesh and enclosed the infant. In time, Dionysus was born ""perfect"""
"many versions of the story, Zeus took the form of a swan and seduced Leda on the same night she slept with her husband King Tyndareus. In some versions, she laid two eggs from which the children hatched. In other versions, Helen is a daughter of Nemesis, the goddess who personified the disaster that awaited those suffering from the pride of Hubris. The subject was rarely seen in the large-scale sculpture of antiquity, although a representation of Leda in sculpture has been attributed in modern times to Timotheus (""compare illustration, below left""); small-scale sculptures survive showing both reclining and standing"
"of the origin of the Milky Way is that Zeus had tricked Hera into nursing the infant Heracles: discovering who he was, she pulled him from her breast, and a spurt of her milk formed the smear across the sky that can be seen to this day. Unlike any Greeks, the Etruscans instead pictured a full-grown bearded Heracles at Hera's breast: this may refer to his adoption by her when he became an Immortal. He had previously wounded her severely in the breast. When Heracles reached adulthood, Hera drove him mad, which led him to murder his family and this"
"aging Acrisius was there and Perseus accidentally struck him on the head with his javelin (or discus), fulfilling the prophecy. Danaë In Greek mythology, Danaë (, ; Ancient Greek: Δανάη, , ) was an Argive princess and mother of the hero Perseus by Zeus. She was credited with founding the city of Ardea in Latium during the Bronze Age. Danae was the daughter and only child of King Acrisius of Argos by his wife Queen Eurydice or Aganippe. In some accounts, she had a sister Evarete, wife of King Oenomaus of Pisa and mother of Hippodamia. Disappointed by his lack"
"surpassing other local maidens in beauty. She had intercourse with Poseidon and in due course gave birth to a son, whom she named Byzas. He became the founder of Byzantium and named the Golden Horn (Greek Χρυσόκερας) after his mother. According to Nonnus, Keroessa's birthplace was the same as that of her brother Epaphus, i. e. Egypt. Keroessa In Greek mythology, Keroessa (in Greek Κερόεσσα ""the horned"") was a heroine of the foundational myth of Byzantium. She was the daughter of Io and Zeus; elder sister of Epaphus; and mother of Byzas, founder of Byzantium, with her uncle, Poseidon. According"
"Beroe (mythology) Beroe (Greek: Βερόη) in Greek mythology is a nymph of Beirut, the daughter of Aphrodite and Adonis, and sister of Golgos. She was wooed by both Dionysus and Poseidon, eventually marrying Poseidon. At the birth of Beroe, Hermes acted as the midwife and assisted in the delivery of Beroe then the Virgin Astraia (lady of justice) took the infant Beroe and fed her with the wise breast and told her words of law, feeding her honey and washing her with sacred water. As she grew up, she was highly regarded as an outstanding beauty and destined to marry"
"daughters of Poseidon, the god of the sea. When the nymphs became aware of her claims, they protested to their father, who retaliated by calling up a sea monster called Cetus to patrol and wreak havoc along the coastline of Ethiopia placing Cassiope's kingdom at risk. In response the Queen, together with her husband Cepheus, decided to sacrifice her daughter, Princess Andromeda, to the monster. Andromeda was chained to a rock at the edge of the sea as an offering to the monster. Perseus was travelling back home on his winged horse, Pegasus, after battling with Medusa. He rescued Andromeda"
"when Perseus beheaded Medusa, they were born of the Earth, fed by the Gorgon's blood. A variation of this story holds that they were formed from the mingling of Medusa's blood, pain and sea foam, implying that Poseidon had involvement in their making. The last version bears resemblance to Hesiod's account of the birth of Aphrodite from the foam created when Uranus's severed genitals were cast into the sea by Cronus. Pegasus aided the hero Bellerophon in his fight against the Chimera. There are varying tales about how Bellerophon found Pegasus; the most common being that the hero was told"
"prophecy stated that a son of the sea-nymph Thetis, with whom Zeus fell in love after gazing upon her in the oceans off the Greek coast, would become greater than his father. Possibly for one or both of these reasons, Thetis was betrothed to an elderly human king, Peleus son of Aeacus, either upon Zeus' orders, or because she wished to please Hera, who had raised her. All of the gods were invited to Peleus and Thetis' wedding and brought many gifts, except Eris (the goddess of discord), who was stopped at the door by Hermes, on Zeus' order. Insulted,"
"Persephone and take her as a wife, Demeter became enraged at Zeus and stopped growing harvests for the earth. To soothe her, Zeus sent Hermes to the underworld to return Persephone to her mother. However, she had eaten six pomegranate seeds in the underworld and was thus eternally tied to the underworld, since the pomegranate seed was sacred there. Persephone could then only leave the underworld when the earth was blooming, or every season except the winter. The Homeric Hymns describes the abduction of Persephone by Hades: Persephone herself is considered a fitting other half to Hades because of the"
"Poseidon. Eros struck her twice with arrows of love and a confrontation took place for her love. Beroe wore no ornaments or make-up, and she was not vain and never examined herself in the mirror. Beroe was a mortal but often her beauty was compared to that of goddesses. Beroe (mythology) Beroe (Greek: Βερόη) in Greek mythology is a nymph of Beirut, the daughter of Aphrodite and Adonis, and sister of Golgos. She was wooed by both Dionysus and Poseidon, eventually marrying Poseidon. At the birth of Beroe, Hermes acted as the midwife and assisted in the delivery of Beroe"
"Sun and Moon) the parents of the Horae, goddesses of the seasons. Smyrnaeus describes them as the four handmaidens of Hera, but in most accounts their number is three, and their parents are Zeus and Themis. According to Virgil, Selene also had a tryst with the great god Pan, who seduced her with a ""snowy bribe of wool"". Scholia on Virgil add that the god wrapped himself in a sheepskin. Selene was also said to be the mother of the legendary Greek poet Musaeus. Like her brother Helios, the Sun god, who drives his sun chariot across the sky each"
"based on Greek myth) says that the milk came from the goddess Ops (Greek Rhea), or Opis, the wife of Saturn (Greek Cronus). Saturn swallowed his children to ensure his position as head of the Pantheon and sky god, and so Ops conceived a plan to save her newborn son Jupiter (Greek Zeus): She wrapped a stone in infant's clothes and gave it to Saturn to swallow. Saturn asked her to nurse the child once more before he swallowed it, and the milk that spurted when she pressed her nipple against the rock eventually became the Milky Way. In the"
"is the ancient Greek myth of Danaë, which tells of how Zeus, king of the gods, visited Danaë in a shower of gold, from which union Perseus was born. The myth is regarded as a forerunner of the Christian belief in the Annunciation, the divine conception of Christ. Orazio's daughter Artemisia Gentileschi portrayed Danaë earlier. The painting was auctioned at Sotheby's New York on 28 January 2016. It was the most important Baroque painting to be offered for sale in decades, and purchased for US $30,500,000 by the Getty. It is to be hung alongside Gentileschi's ""Lot and his Daughters""."